MANILA, Philippines?Malacañang is furious at reports that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her party spent close to P1 million for a dinner at a classy New York restaurant, which triggered denunciations of ?brazen? spending at a time when many Filipinos have nothing to eat.

?Not a single centavo of taxpayers? money was spent for that dinner,? an angry Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said Sunday, referring to the dinner at Le Cirque restaurant on Aug. 2 during Ms Arroyo?s visit to the United States.

To quell speculation about Ms Arroyo?s supposedly wasteful spending, Remonde said he would ask the deputy executive secretary for finance to release this week a financial statement on all expenses incurred during the visit.

?The report was grossly exaggerated, really exaggerated,? Remonde said in his weekly media forum on state-run Radyo ng Bayan. ?That?s what you call agitation propaganda to anger the people.?

Contrary to the report, Remonde insisted that the dinner was a ?simple? one and was hosted by Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer on Saturday contacted Romualdez by phone for comment. He said he would call back but did not. He did not respond to calls and text messages on Sunday.

?What we had in New York was a simple, late night dinner because it was already late at night when we arrived there from Washington DC and, of course, we were all hungry,? Remonde said.

He said the Malacañang group occupied only two tables and ordered a ?set? meal consisting of soup, salad, a main course, drinks and coffee or tea.

?There was no truth to the report that many different types of champagne and fancy food items were ordered,? he said.

Church outraged

Church leaders and even an ally of Malacañang, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, expressed outrage at the report.

The report earlier prompted Ms Arroyo?s critics, such as the leftist group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), to immediately ask ?who spent for the lavish dinner.?

Remonde lambasted Bayan.

The report ?is the fruit of a poisonous tree, coming as it does from Bayan, which is a communist front organization dedicated to the overthrow of democratic governments in the Philippines,? he said.

?(It) will never cease spreading agitation propaganda against the administration of President Arroyo or any administration for that matter for as long as that administration is not headed by a communist president,? he added.

The report, carried by several Philippine newspapers, was based on an article that appeared at the American newspaper New York Post.

Post article

The brief article of Richard Johnson in the newspaper?s ?Eat and Drink? section read:

?The economic downturn hasn?t persuaded everyone to pinch pennies. Philippines President Maria Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was at Le Cirque the other night with a large entourage enjoying the good life, even though the former comptroller of her country?s armed services, Carlos Garcia, was found guilty earlier this year of perjury and two of his sons were arrested in the US on bulk cash-smuggling charges. Macapagal-Arroyo ordered several bottles of very expensive wine, pushing the dinner tab up to $20,000.?

The New York Post, founded in 1801, is one of the oldest newspapers in the United States. It currently has a circulation of about 625,000, the sixth largest among US newspapers.

The Post has received flak for sensationalism, as when it recently published photos taken from a video showing ESPN reporter Erin Andrews naked inside a hotel room. The video was taken without her permission.

The restaurant tab, purported copies of which have since circulated on blogs, showed that the Arroyo delegation had five servings of wild golden osetra caviar ($1,400), 11 bottles of Krug champagne ($5,610), and 25 orders each of the Chef?s Seasonal Menu and Tasting Menu (totaling $1,450 and $4,500 respectively), along with 17 other items.

?Tell the truth?

Saying she was shocked by the ?outrageous and outlandish? spending, Senator Santiago urged those who knew to tell who really paid for the dinner.

?My advice is for them to tell the truth, who went there and how much the dinner cost and then say that this will never happen again,? she told dzBB radio.

She said there was no need to cover up.

Santiago, who joined Ms Arroyo?s trip, said she was invited to the dinner but she begged off because of her chronic fatigue syndrome.

She said she was surprised when she learned later that the dinner was at Le Cirque.

Santiago said going to dinner at such an expensive restaurant was ?too insensitive for the circumstances of the country,? and called ?valid? the criticisms that had come Malacañang?s way.

?I can sympathize with critics because it sounds so outrageous and outlandish that people from a developing country should rack up a bill of P1 million,? the senator said.

Wrong move

Santiago said that if the one who paid the bill had thought it out well and insisted on dining at Le Cirque, it was natural for the person not to own up because it was a wrong move.

She said she did not know for sure but that if the report that Representative Romualdez hosted the dinner was true, he probably did it as a blowout for Ms Arroyo and her husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, who celebrated their wedding anniversary in the United States.

Santiago said that if Malacañang paid the bill, officials should ?tell the truth and if they erred and it looks like they erred, just own up to it and promise that this will not happen again and it was a mistake in judgment.?

Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez told the Inquirer that people ?entrusted by Lord? with much money should spend it wisely, especially amid a global crisis that is taking its toll on the country?s long-suffering poor.

?They should explain ? not only for their own protection but also for the country. It may be an issue that will divide us again,? he said in a telephone interview.

?Even if it is not public money, it is very imprudent,? said Iñiguez, chair of the Permanent Committee on Public Affairs of the Catholic Bishops? Conference of the Philippines.

?Insulting, brazen?

?It is outrageous if it would come out that they used public funds. It?s insulting and it is a total and brazen disregard of what we are experiencing right now during this crisis,? Iñiguez said in remarks posted on the CBCP news website.

?If it?s their money, it?s really up to them on how to spend it. But then again, it?s totally needless to spend such a huge amount for just a dinner,? he said.

Evangelist Bro. Eddie Villanueva said in a statement: ?We cannot keep quiet on this excessive spending while an estimated 3.7 million Filipino families are hungry.?

?It showed utmost insensitivity to her people back home. Utterly lamentable,? he added.

Villanueva adverted to a recent Social Weather Stations survey that he said showed there were 3.7 million families ?experiencing involuntary hunger.?

?Granting that she did not spend for the dinner, as claimed by Malacañang, Ms Arroyo should have been sensitive enough to think about the hungry Filipinos back in the country that she supposedly leads,? he said.

An overseas Filipino workers group joined the mounting outrage over the million-peso dinner.

Migrante-Middle East said the amount could have been put to better use if spent to repatriate some of the 2,000 stranded overseas Filipinos in the region. With reports from Gil C. Cabacungan Jr., Jerome Aning and Inquirer Research